The following disclosure relates generally to systems for testing the thermal, mechanical, and environmental reliability of electronic components. Electronic components such as microchips and microprocessors generate large amounts of heat relative to their size during normal operation. Newly designed chip packages need to be tested using a fast and robust system that includes thermal cycling (i.e., both heating and cooling) in order to approximately model a real-world operating environment.
Existing systems for reliability testing typically require a large thermal chamber that is time-consuming and costly to run, especially when there is a need to test only a few chips. Moreover, existing thermal cycling chambers are not designed to accommodate three-dimensional integrated circuits in which several microchips are placed together in a three-dimensional stack configuration (stack-chip). Stacked chips further concentrate the generation of heat energy within the chip, creating the need for a testing system that is capable of fully penetrating 3D chip architectures with heating, cooling, and moisture testing.